Pilates Business Coaching Westminster CO

Local resource for pilates business coaching in Westminster, CO. Includes detailed information on local businesses that provide access to pilates business coaching, pilates business consulting, pilates business training, and pilates business mentoring, as well as advice and content on opening a pilates studio, consulting and marketing, and running a small business.

If this were a perfect world, we’d all have ideal clients. They would rarely cancel, always give us their complete, undivided attention and adore us for the wonderful instructors that we are. As we know, however, this isn’t a perfect world and sometimes clients can make our lives difficult. As instructors we must learn how to deal with clients who may not fit the “ideal” client profile by changing the way we react to them or by learning to just say “no.”

Here are a few examples of problems we may face as instructors and some suggestions on how to best deal with them.

The “Always-Has-an-Excuse” ClientThis client always cancels at the very last minute yet rarely wants to pay for the missed session. While some excuses can be valid and prepaid commitments can be waived, you must draw a line somewhere. For example, I had a young client who loved to party pretty much every day of the week. Around 15 minutes before her session was to begin, she would call to cancel and then beg me not to charge her. Since I don’t count regular hangovers as valid excuses, I would charge her the appropriate cancellation fee.

It’s important to be clear up front which cancellations are allowed and which are not. Of course there is always the risk of losing the client if he or she feels offended at being charged, but that might be a better alternative to having someone constantly take advantage. Also, this only works when sessions are prepaid via credit card or package price. It is much more difficult to collect a missed session fee if they have not yet paid. So if you have a client who is prone to canceling, try to get him or her on a prepaid plan to protect yourself and your time.

The “You’re-Not-as-Good-as-My-Last-Instructor” ClientThis one, thank goodness, is rare. It tends to be more prevalent with instructors who sub or those who take over for very popular instructors.

I once inherited a client who fell into this category when an instructor moved out of state. Nothing I did was the same as the previous instructor, and nothing I did seemed to please her. She was also part of a duet and while her partner seemed very pleased with my teaching style and seemed to be progressing nicely, she was never happy. I also discovered that I was spending too much time trying to tailor-make exercises to fit her needs and, as a result, not spending as much time with the partner.

Ultimately, I moved her partner into another duet and then let the difficult one go. I suggested she see someone else who might be a better fit. Some clients and instruct...

With so many conflicting reports, it’s hard to tell whether the United States is truly in a recession or if we are just dangerously close. But one thing is certain—it’s on everyone’s minds.

It is especially on the minds of the small business owners and freelancers in the Pilates community. Could Pilates be one of the first things to drop from our clients’ budgets? Articles with titles like “It’s Not So Easy Being Less Rich” and “Is The Economy Making Us Fat?” suggest this possibility. Both explain how even the wealthy have been choosing to cut back on perceived “luxuries” like fitness.

I was curious to see how some prominent, successful Pilates studio owners across the country were doing in this economy, and what advice they could give from their years of experience with economic ebs and flows. While the current economy seems to have taken a dive from coast to coast, it is clear that people handle their money differently depending on location.

Alycea Ungaro, owner of Real Pilates in New York, Lora Anderson, co-owner of Pilates Studio City in Los Angeles, and Stacy Sims, owner of Pendleton Pilates in Cincinnati, were kind enough to share their experiences and solutions in a tough economy. Thankfully, across the board, there seems to be as much good news as bad.

Anderson, who has owned her Pilates studio since 2004 and opened a second location earlier this year, has found that while private sessions may be less popular than group Reformer classes these days, Los Angeles’ body-conscious clients say things like, “There are things I might give up, but it’s not going to be Pilates.” And while Cincinnati may not be a particularly “fit” city by national standards, Sims says that her group of four studios has “certainly found the niche of clients that wish to invest in their health via Pilates.” Ungaro’s Real Pilates in New York has experienced a definite decrease in the number of privates booked, but she has adjusted the studio’s schedule successfully to accommodate what most studios nationwide seem to be seeing: a trend toward group-class popularity.

With a combined 25 years of experience behind them as Pilates studio owners (not to mention time before that spent teaching), our experts offered up several time-tested strategies to help studio owners and instructors survive recession:

1. Play to Your StrengthsUngaro, who opened Real Pilates in 1996, stresses the importance of knowing what you’re already good at.

“Play to your strengths as a teacher, as a studio owner,” she says. “I’ve seen this mistake, and I’ve made this mistake for years. Which is, let me try to capture...

The Art of Drawing in New Clients

A newcomer’s first reaction to seeing the Pilates equipment is almost universal: Wide-eyed, they want to know what it does, how it works, and where to sign up for classes. The high-tech contraptions almost sell the discipline through intrigue alone. Drawing in crowds of these first-times isn’t easy, but it can be done with a little ingenuity.

Some innovative studio owners have found one way to attract additional traffic, garner interest in Pilates from a new set of clients and gain additional exposure within their communities. By partnering with artists, these workout centers are turning their walls into gallery space, hanging the paintings of area artists. The benefits are two-fold: The open house for each new show provides the perfect backdrop for drawing in a new audience—for both the studio and the artist—and gives the studio a stylized look. And, the cost for hosting the event—which is often shared by the studio and the artist—is often less costly than placing an advertisement or mailing a batch of postcards.

We sat down with Margi Douglas, owner of Pilates Garage in Brooklyn, New York, to see what has made her studio’s gallery showings so successful. Keep reading to see how she runs the program, and to get ideas for your own open-house, too.

PP: Has using your studio as a gallery opened your doors to new clients?MD: Yes. With each show we hang, the Pilates Garage hosts an opening reception for the artist which brings in anywhere from 50 to a hundred people for a solo show and up to two hundred for group shows. The artists have their own following, and often people who live in the neighborhood, who did not know about Pilates or know about our studio, come to the opening and are so impressed by the space that they sign up for a mat class or even a private.

PP: How do you advertise the openings?MD: The artist has the responsibility of creating a post card image for the show that includes the date of the opening reception. We work with them to make sure the information is clear and correct on the card but we allow their aesthetic to guide the design. Once the cards are printed we place them in our studio, and in nearby businesses that will help us promote the event.

We also work with the artist and a PR person to put together a press release that is sent out to local newspapers and magazines. We have been listed several times in Time Out New York for the art-related events we have hosted.

PP: How do you plan for an opening?MD: Once we have set a date that works for the studio and the artist, we work backwards to hang the show one week before. It always looks good if the studio can sell a couple of pieces prior to the opening. We decide on the estimated numbers that will be there based on the artist’s contacts and ours, and we contact our local wine store to set up a discount price or in some cases a free wine tasting to accommodate that crowd. We have been very lucky in that ...

Your Practice in Pictures

Nicole Rogers, a Pilates instructor in Brooklyn, recently decided to promote her teaching skills online. Below, she shares her tips for reserving your own spot on the web and getting picture-perfect photos for online and print advertising.

In 2006 I quit my job as a television producer to teach Pilates. Post-certification, I was making less than half my previous salary. I was also working two jobs—one started at 6am and the other ended at 9pm. After a year of this, I felt I needed a different strategy. After all, I left my well-paying, high-stress job not just because I love teaching Pilates, but to have a better lifestyle.

My new strategy started by getting a job at a great studio a few blocks from my apartment in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. Then a friend of mine got me a job teaching mat classes at her office twice a week. Teaching in offices was lucrative and fun, so I started handing out business cards and getting friends to spread the word at their place of work, but it seemed like no one was taking me seriously. Maybe it seemed like this was a hobby or a phase. I had no desire to open my own studio, but I needed a way to market myself. A website seemed like a good first step. For some reason a website seems to connote that I’ve thought long and hard about this and that I take being a Pilates instructor very seriously. I’d noticed photographer friends hand out cards with their websites and get real feedback.

I had a friend who designs websites get the ball rolling by buying my domain name: www.nicolerogers.com . Then I needed content. I asked a photographer friend of mine, Mike Vorrasi , to take the pictures, and he even insisted on doing it for free! I thought there was no way my new studio, The Pilates Boutique , would let me shoot in their brand new space. But I proposed the idea to my bosses anyway. I explained that I was making a website to market myself, and therefore the studio would benefit as well. They agreed, and gave me free-reign to shoot any Sunday evening when no one was there. I enlisted a teacher friend to watch me for form during the shoot and we were ready.

I wanted to avoid the rather institutional, instructional Pilates photos I’m used to seeing. After all, I used to direct music videos—I wanted something a little more artistic. So on the given Sunday, I assembled my crew and we shot about half of our photos outside and half inside. I realized quickly, that even though I was a production manager, producer and director for eight years, I wasn’t perfectly prepared for the unique challenges a Pilates shoot presents. The following is a list of tips I give you in retrospect. Some of these things I did. Some of them I wish I had done.

Before the shoot:

1) Make sure that the details are clear regarding location and time. If you are shooting at your studio, make sure everyone knows exactly what is going on and when. The same is t...

This page provides relevant content and local businesses that can help with your search for information on Brand Strategists.
You will find informative articles about Brand Strategists, including "How to Brand Your Pilates Studio on a Shoestring".
Below you will also find local businesses that may provide the products or services you are looking for.
Please scroll down to find the local resources in Westminster, CO that can help answer your questions about Brand Strategists.